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Outsideleft Week in Music: The Visions of Joanna... We're hearing from... Joanna Sternberg, Lael Neale, Lava La Rue, Isobel Campbell, John Cale, Sonic Boom, Panda Bear & Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez, Emily Frembgen, Billy Childish, The Armoires / Roy Crank, Crash Harmony, Love and Rockets, Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni, Turkey Vulture, Principe Valiente, Dallas Kent, Seafoam Walls,YG Marley & Lauryn Hill, Clock DVA, Being Dead, The Rotations, Afterimage, Heldon/Richard Pinhas, Chords, Birmingham Music Library

Outsideleft Week in Music: The Visions of Joanna...

We're hearing from... Joanna Sternberg, Lael Neale, Lava La Rue, Isobel Campbell, John Cale, Sonic Boom, Panda Bear & Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez, Emily Frembgen, Billy Childish, The Armoires / Roy Crank, Crash Harmony, Love and Rockets, Javon Jackson & Nikki Giovanni, Turkey Vulture, Principe Valiente, Dallas Kent, Seafoam Walls,YG Marley & Lauryn Hill, Clock DVA, Being Dead, The Rotations, Afterimage, Heldon/Richard Pinhas, Chords, Birmingham Music Library

by OL House Writer,
first published: August, 2024

approximate reading time: minutes

Given the plethora of country-pop infesting the charts at the moment, easily identified by use of banjo, stomp-box and nasal autotuned vocal, this single is a breath of fresh air... - John Robinson discusses Joanna Sternberg's 'A Country Dance'

intro.

A massive and varied Week in Music. So much to hear. Thanks to the following great reviewers for corralling these top tunes.  Martin Devenney (1), Ogglypoogly (1), John Robinson (4), DJ Fuzzyfelt (1), Hamilton High (1), Ancient Champion (7), Lee Paul (1), David O'Byrne (2), Alan Rider (7), LamontPaul (1),

singles.

JOANNA STERNBERG - A Country Dance (Fat Possum)
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by John Robinson

Given the plethora of country-pop infesting the charts at the moment, easily identified by use of banjo, stomp-box and nasal autotuned vocal, this single is a breath of fresh air. Sternberg is honest, charming, heartfelt and totally disarming here, their beautifully placed delivery of a day out with their friend. Given their confessed phobias of insects, agoraphobia etc, it's a day out that they would never actually embark on: "as I dance with you ... you'll finally see I make you happy" is followed by "this is a fantasy, it's true...". A tribute to a close friend, and to the silliness of friendship: criticism falls apart in the face of something like this, just a lovely song. 

THE ROTATIONS - The Cat That Got The Cream (YouTube)
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by Ancient Champion

Some recordings come our way and where they come from, sometimes it feels best not to ask.  "(Our new single is out tomorrow (BLUE MOON MONDAY) albuim to follow called Gung-Ho)." Mr Robert Anderson had me at the typo.  Banjo swordfishing Tom Waits type in some moments. Callum Easter-y at others. Oompa oompa. All alone in dialing up a certain circumspection of the generic form in the functional world of music. AI could do this but never would. 

BEING DEAD - Nightvision (Bayonet)
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by John Robinson

A progressive pop song with a surf guitar charm, which takes a while to get started but wraps you up in its psych arms. Harmonies and sonic jerkiness to bring to mind MGMT or Empire of the Sun, but gifted with a ragged vision and charm, clearly a tight-knit band. The singer calls herself Falcon Bitch, the kind of tough attitude belies the easy flow of the vocals.

TURKEY VULTURE - Fiends Like Us (Youtube)
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by David O'Byrne

Turkey Vulture are a self styled heavy music duo from Connecticut who span the divides between various heavy metal and hardcore punk genres. Having by their own admission been quiet for a couple of years they have reappeared to drop a track, "Fiends Like Us" from their forthcoming six track EP "On The List" on Youtube. On the evidence of "Fiends Like Us" it's difficult to believe that Turkey Vulture have ever been "quiet". It's an anthemic and memorable assault on the senses. Raw in the extreme, even in comparison to their two previous releases. The duo; Jessie May: guitars/bass/vocals and Jim Clegg: drums/ backing vocals claim it's their Bonnie and Clyde song, citing Misfits, Social Distortion as influences. Peering back into the mists, it's not unreasonable to add Crass and Discharge to that mix. On The List is released on October 25th, and like the band's two previous EPs appears to be a straight to stream release without a label. The six tracks are billed as "five gritty anthems that reflect what listeners have come to expect from Turkey Vulture" Plus what they describe as a "deadly folk song" featuring banjo, accordion and "grimly humorous lyrics". Clearly one worth waiting up for.

DALLAS KENT - Ghost Highway (Slaughterback Records)
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by Alan Rider

Dallas Kent is a collaboration between London-based composer/producer Ian Williams (we reviewed his 'Slow Motion Apocalypse' album here) and Texan singer Crystal Brown.  Its taken a while to get here, as it started in the late 2010s when Williams was looking for a singer to work with on some of his dark electronic pop songs, with Brown fortuitously happening to live one street away from his studio in Hackney.  They shelved the project when Brown relocated back to the USA, but have now resurrected it for a new album, drawing on material they recorded back then. 'Ghost Highway' is a wonderfully luscious track, close to Massive Attack in style, and accompanied by a David Lynch-ian video (with a title like Ghost Highway, you just have to, don't you?), filmed by Brown on her phone.  It promises to be an interesting album.  We will keep you posted.

LAEL NEALE - Electricity (Sub Pop)
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by Ancient Champion

All 60s all the time. Psych hauntologists will know. From Lael's second Sub Pop LP 'Star Eaters Delight', a sonic collaboration with producer and accompanist Guy Blakeslee – whom she beseeches 'play less'. Written in a power outage during a five day ice storm, following her covid displacement to Virginia. Despite all the reasons why this should not hit, it just does. Understated electric loveliness.

CRASH HARMONY - Velour Goddess (Magic Door)
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by Alan Rider

There are just so many new releases each week, sometimes you have to just stick a pin into the pile and pull something out and hope that its a nice surprise.  I kind of wish I hadn't bothered with this one, as its landfill.  This looks and sounds like a Dad Band.  Probably just got home from picking the kids up from school and are rehearsing in the Man Cave, ready for a gig down their local pub at the weekend.

SEAFOAM WALLS - Cabin Fever (Dion Dia)
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by John Robinson

Their last album topped Thurston Moore's top 30 list for 2021 and garnered good press from sources as diverse as Pitchfork and Afropunk, their second album is forthcoming and this lead single is pretty impressive. Their music is easiest characterised as indie rock, but they describe it themselves as "Caribbean Jazzgaze". Cabin Fever has great riffs, hooks everywhere and a cat in the video. The lyrics, and music, try to reflect the homogeneity the singer feels when every town on tour looks the same, when every community seems identical, and critiques mass consumption, with rather philosophical musing: "theories of relation, never a straight line, never a box to confine". More about Seafoam Walls right here

ISOBEL CAMPBELL - Maintenant Ou Jamais (Cooking Vinyl)
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by Ancient Champion

The French version of Do or Die (Now or Never) from Isobel Campbell's LP 'Bow To Love'. A gentle delight. The acoustics, the strings and the reaching the end before it an age before it outstays it's welcome. Not everyone can do this this well.  Is everyone singing in French redolent of Francois Hardy? If I had a heart I'd add it here so that it could have six. It'd be deserved.

JOHN CALE - Davies and Wales (POPtical Illusion )
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by Martin Devenney

I was lucky enough to see the musical legend that is John Cale for the first time at Cambridge Corn Exchange last year. He was added to a list of acts that I’ve seen that are in their 70s or 80s which include Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen and, just a few months ago, Wreckless Eric. Each of them has exceeded my expectations, and it is obviously a good plan in your old age to just carry on recording and performing. Cale’s performance at Cambridge was mesmerising and I sat through most of the gig with my mouth slightly open. He is back touring in March next year so make sure you book your tickets. I have to declare an interest that I am a proud Welshman and have a mental list of those who are Welsh and have added to the world’s culture through the arts (there are a lot for such a small country). The new song and the new video are quite wonderful with the mix of animation and grainy 8/16mm film spliced together with images of Cale today. As Director Jethro Waters says "There is such as melange of feelings packed into this song; his youth in Wales, his time in NYC and California, - and I wanted to translate that time travel in a joyful, purposeful way".  Make sure you check out the new video and put the tour dates in your diary. 
Additionally, see David O'Byrne's reviews of Davies and Wales and those tour dates too, right here.    

EMILY FREMBGEN - Drink Tonight (Don Giovanni Records)
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by Ogglypoogly

If I keep the volume low, Drink Tonight is a perfectly acceptable song, in fact it’s bung it on in the background perfection, this is perfect for being the soundtrack to giving the sink a quick once over. Musically - it’s a great example of country-folk-americana, what lets it down is the vocals, there's something a little too chirpy about them, Frembgen just sounds a little insincere as she speak-sings her way through the motions. Try it, you might like it, and if you don’t - please accept my sincerest apologies.


YG MARLEY & LAURYN HILL - Survival (YG Marley)
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by Ancient Champion

A great take your mom to work day effort here...  While 'Survival' is beautifully smooth, lush and amazing, it's just, when your mom is Lauryn Hill, her work here is so incredibly more magical, invoking, immediate and evocative. It's like when a famous guitarist came by and made my guitar talk while he nonchalantly and concurrently chatted about teaching himself to play as a kid by listening to Wes Montgomery tapes borrowed from the Thimblemill library. After he left the guitar was returned gently to the case, slid back under the bed and while never forgotten never played again. When you take your mom to work and mom is Lauryn Hill, everyone leaves work and doesn't bother coming back in on Monday. No one knows better how to get the job done than Lauryn.  

LAVA LA RUE - Sandown Beach (Dirty Hit)
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by LamontPaul

Whistling is the least of it. Amazingly. The whistling is really something though. From the summer's great LP, 'Starface', Sandown Beach arrives towards the end, welcome and warming. There's a pleasant-louche, and opposed to any other, wondrous connotation. This is funky-pop-soul now and it's a restorative. It's sounds like a break from the weight of expectation foisted on the young by the mantle of pop music history.  By pop historians. Lava La Rue doing it their way and doing it oh so supremely well. Lava La Rue, wearing hats better than you.

ep's.

HELDON/RICHARD PINHAS - Le Plan/Winter Music (OtherSide)
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by Alan Rider

Boutique US imprint OtherSide (what does 'Boutique' really mean? Small?) are simultaneously releasing two EPs that are the work of legendary French musician Richard Pinhas. If you haven't heard of him, you may well have heard of his ‘70s progressive electronic rock band 'Heldon', and the EP ‘Le Plan' is made up of four tracks recorded in 2000 for the album ‘Only Chaos Is Real’ by a reformed line-up of that band, remixed by Pinhas. The other EP, ‘Winter Music’, is a Pinhas solo work, originally recorded in 1979. Both get the usual re-mastering treatment, meaning they sound really good. 'Le Plan' is what you might call claustrophobic prog rock, crowded and densely layered.  It's great fun and just the thing to buck you up. Apparently it also includes  vocals from various sci-fi writers and philosophers who Pinhas has worked with on his previous solo releases.  'Winter Music' is an entirely different kettle of fish.  Drones and loops slowly evolve in a hypnotic, ambient, mantra reminiscent of Eno. Expansive and circular, you could lose yourself in this quite easily.


SONIC BOOM, PANDA BEAR, MARIACHI 2000 DE CUTBERTO PéREZ - Viviendo en las sequelas (Livin’ in the After) - Songbook Instrumental (Domino Records)
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by Ancient Champion

From the new and very wildly listenable Reset Mariachi EP. You don't need to tell me more. But you do need to listen.

PRINCIPE VALIENTE - In This Light (Single Remixes) (Metropolis)
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by Alan Rider

Principe Valiente jump on the remix bandwagon with an EP of five remixes of their last two singles taken from their 'In This Light' album ,'Something New' and "Inspired by Me'.  Previously I had described the band as competent, if unexceptional, Goth fare.  Not bad, just not great. In the middle, basically. Nothing here will change that opinion particularly, but some mixes are certainly improvements on the originals, which rather begs the question; why not just make the originals better in the first place, negating the need for re-mixes?

CLOCK DVA - Demo 1979 (Sheffield Tape Archive/Bandcamp)
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by Alan Rider

Sheffield Tape Archive is exactly what it says on the tin, a Bandcamp collection of archive recordings, demos, concerts, and rarities from Sheffield bands and visiting acts from 1980 onwards.  So you get a right old mix, from grubby quality live recordings of The Fall, various anarchist punk bands (Crass, etc), to Eek-A-Mouse, Screaming Lord Sutch, and even Gun Club.  The better offerings, though, are the demos and cassette releases from those experimental , post-punk, and electronic acts that are synonymous with Sheffield.  So we have Hula, Artery, and Clock DVA, with the imaginatively titled 'Demo 1979', which is actually quite decent, despite obviously being of portastudio quality.  Many releases are available as 'name your price', so in theory you could get this for 50p if you are a tightwad.  This is a valuable resource from a city that has spawned more than it's fair share of excellent music and is well worth your checking it out. On Bandcamp, here.

LOVE AND ROCKETS - So Alive Remixes (Beggars Banquet)
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by Alan Rider

Love and Rockets, for those of you that don't know, are Bauhaus minus Peter Murphy, and achieved more commercial success in the US than either Bauhaus or Murphy did and are currently riding high on tour with Janes Addiction.  This isn't a new song, but a series of re-mixes of 1989's lacklustre, but hit (in the US), single 'So Alive'.  This set of remixes is predictable in the extreme.  All 90's sounding trippy, blippy stuff, with the drums up too loud and lots of jittery synths added for no particular reason.  It adds nothing really.

long plays.

VARIOUS BILLY CHILDISH ARTISTS - History of his Song and Dance Groups (Damaged Goods Records)
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by DJ Fuzzyfelt

DJ Fuzzyfelt says Childish, hitting 65, is better than ever. Read his reivew of From Fossilised Cretaceous Seams: A Short History of his Song and Dance Groups right here

JAVON JACKSON AND NIKKI GIOVANNI - Theme for Nikki (Palmetto)
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by Ancient Champion

"Javon & Nikki Go to the Movies" is a follow up to the earlier conception from the pair, 'The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni' with the legendary American poet and activist Nikki Giovanni selecting her favorite spirituals for interpretation by Javon's illustrious quartet. The new record also places Giovanni as the curator, although on "Javon & Nikki Go to the Movies" -  a collection of movie themes, we get to hear Giovanni too. Here, at about three minute mark we hear Giovanni muse about aging. So beautiful. If only it were as easy as Nikki Giovanni and Javon Jackson make it sound. You're gonna be putting this on repeat for sure.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Brown Acid - The Eighteenth Trip (RidingEasy Records)
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by Alan Rider

Alan RIder takes you on your 18th Trip on Brown Acid right here

AFTERIMAGE - Faces To Hide (Independent Project Records )
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by David O'Byrne

David O'Byrne's extensive thoughts here.

so, have you got anything else.

CHORDS - Maybe Tomorrow (Big)
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by Lee Paul

I don't know whether an appearance on Top of the Pops 2 meant you hand't quite made it or something else. The Chords' Maybe Tomorrow is from 1980.

THE ARMOIRES / ROY CRANK - Songs for Ukrainian Independence Day (Big Stir)
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by John Robinson

This is a double-a sided single / download with all proceeds going to UHU - United Help Ukraine - a non-profit that has been going for years but obviously has more need than ever of support as the war with Russia continues. The songs are excellent, The Armoires' Snake Island Thirteen commemorates the 13 Ukrainian soldiers who resisted a Russian warship on the first day of the war while defending Snake Island. Using lyrical reference to Greek mythology, the folksy song allows singer Christina Bulbenko (a first-generation Ukrainian-American) to express defiant and powerful vocals, with The Armoires influenced by Fairport Convention as well as power-pop and avant-pop. Roy Crank is a musician and DJ in Ukraine who runs the Crankin' Up radio show, when not literally under fire. His contribution Don't Kill That World I'm Living In was originally a protest song about deforestation but found new life in the conflict. It's a glam rock song, clearly inspired by Sparks similar Please Don't Fuck Up My World with forays into fusion and progressive rock in its impressive instrumental passages. Of course, the songs are fairly irrelevant here. Available from the 23rd August here.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Lower Than Underground Vol 1 (Bandcamp/CD)
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by Hamilton High

This is great. From Greece. From 2023. From the Lower Than Underground compilation of cover versions, This, an even more sensitive reinterpretation of The Only Ones' Another Girl, Another Planet. An album packed full of great tracks by bands that just don't quit. It's on bandcamp right here. Do yourself a favour today.

BIRMINGHAM MUSIC LIBRARY - Born '84 (Youtube)
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by Ancient Champion

Birmingham Music Library is the work of musician and writer Shaun Hand a multipotentialite if not an out and out polymath. Strictly sticking to the synths on this Born '84, it's mesmeric for sure. Meanwhile, check out Shaun 's Pop Art Poems book, every recording session of the Jam, chronicled... here.



Essential Information
Main image Joanna Sternberg, borrowed from the Fat Possum website
Previous Week in Music 'Under Cracked Clouds' is here

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